"Giorgione is regarded as a unique figure in the history of art: almost no other Western painter has left so few secure works and enjoyed such fame..." Sylvia Ferino-Pagden.

My website, MyGiorgione, now includes my interpretations of Giorgione's "Tempest" as "The Rest on the Flight into Egypt"; his "Three Ages of Man" as "The Encounter of Jesus with the Rich Young Man"; Titian's, "Sacred and Profane Love" as "The Conversion of Mary Magdalen"; and Titian's "Pastoral Concert" as his "Homage to Giorgione".

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Giorgione: Catalog

In their 1999 Giorgione catalog Terisio Pignatti and
Filippo Pedrocco made a valiant attempt to not only attribute and interpret the
paintings of Giorgione, but also to present them in a rough chronological
order.*

Pignatti and Pedrocco
Giorgione Catalog Cover

The dust jacket of the catalog noted that Teriseo
Pignatti made his career at the Civic Museum of Venice since 1945, and that he
became director of the Museum in 1974. Filippo Pedrocco had overseen the Museum
of Settecento Veneziano in Ca’ Rezzonico since 1983. It would be hard to
imagine two more distinguished Italian scholars.

In the next few months I would like to present the
works of Giorgione in the order in which Pignatti and Pedrocco presented them knowing that
there will always be disagreement on matters of attribution, interpretation,
and dating when it comes to Giorgione.

In today’s posting I list the first four entries in
the catalog. These four small similar panel paintings all seem to have been
made for a small box.

We support the argument that the Padua panels—and
the others that make up this series—were originally part of a decorative scheme
for a piece of furniture or a jewel box.(p. 92)

The authors agree with those who believe that these
panels are the earliest known works of Giorgione.

Number 1 depicts three figures in a landscape. Since
I interpreted Giorgione’s Tempest as his version of the “Rest of the Holy
Family on the Flight into Egypt,” I suspected that the “Rustic Idyll” might
have been an early attempt at that subject. However, recent attempts to
attribute the “Malmesbury” version of the “Judgment of Paris” to either
Giorgione or Raphael have made me wonder if the man in the Rustic Idyll might
also be Paris since the attire of both is so similar. In that case the “Rustic
Idyll” would represent the story of Paris, the nymph Oenone, and their young
child.

Number 2 is the only one of the four with an obvious
subject. However, in her study of Venetian humanism Margaret King has shown
that even the rape of Leda by Jove in the guise of a swan could have a
Christian meaning. No one has ever been able to identify the woman holding up a
strange mirror.

Number 3 depicts two figures in a landscape. The
authors believe that the Astrologer title is not pertinent and believe that an
hypothesis suggesting Orpheus and Father time is “more credible.”

Number 4. The authors note that this panel might
have been the front of the box since x-rays reveal a keyhole in the center.
Most accept the identification of Venus and Cupid but I wonder if the long red
hair of the woman could make her the penitent Mary Magdalen in the wilderness
being ministered to by an angel. ###

Edit: In his 2007 catalog Wolfgang Eller argued that none of the four panels exhibited enough quality to be by Giorgione and that they were most likely done around 1520 or 1525. He felt that the quality was so poor that they couldn't even be attributed to Giulio Campagnola.**

However, In his 2009 study of Giorgione done in connection with the exhibition in Padua celebrating the 500th anniversary of the death of Giorgione, Enrico Maria dal Pozzolo attributed #1 and #2 (coincidentally now in Padua) to Giorgione but believed that #3 and #4 were by an associate working with Giorgione. He supports an early dating.***